STO Soccer Film Review: Air Bud – World Pup

byThe YankonJune 29, 2009

Air Bud – World Pup (2000) was the second movie about dogs playing soccer ever made, and in my opinion it was the second movie about dogs playing soccer that should never have been made. It was worse than Soccer Dog, and that right there says quite a bit about how deplorable it is. Before I delve into why the film is so bad, let me give you some backstory on the entire Air Bud series. Yes, that’s right, this dog/soccer film is part of a nine part series. Yikes…

Air Bud is a Golden Retriever who is unusually good at sports. He is played by his real life alter ego, Buddy, who is better at basketball than I am, which again isn’t saying much. Because Buddy was such a “baller”, some folks in Hollywood got together and made the original Air Bud in 1997. They, of course, made a fortune and now are cranking out almost one film a year where Buddy plays a different sport. They’ve done football, baseball, volleyball, etc. etc.

Air Bud – World Pup was the third film in the series, and it should have signaled the demise of dog/sports movies. But it didn’t. Though Buddy is the star of the film, the kid who plays his owner Josh is the main human character. Josh isn’t much of a star athlete, but Buddy sure is, especially at soccer. Or at least the director wanted us to think so. Buddy scores lots of goals, but we never really see him do too much with the ball. The cinematography is pathetic.

So, to make a long (boring) story short, Buddy leads Josh’s co-ed team to the title (sound familiar Soccer Dog fans?) and both he and Josh meet ladies. Josh gets some family-friendly loving from his special girl, while Buddy actually goes all porno on another Golden Retriever and has puppies. We don’t actually see any doggy style though, which is probably the only good thing about this movie. All in all, Air Bud – World Pup gets two paws down from STO.